Could someone with a T3 test the following:

When I use my T2 and want to bring up a style that is stored in HD on USB, it can take the T2 up to a full 1-2 seconds to load it up for use. Often if the timing isn't exactly right, I accidentally bring in the new style a measure too late, and sometimes when I'm too careful, a measure early.

I heard that the T3 has a different kind of HD, and that the USB is v2. I'm wondering if this makes any difference. I would assume not since we are dealing with such small files anyway, but I would like to know.

Could someone with a T3 tell me how long it takes to load a style from HD and from USB? Thanks.

bump

Does the USB2 and HD on the T3 load styles quicker? Is it as fast, or nearly as fast as the USER ROM?

USB 2.0 will definitely load Styles, Midi's, .Wav, or whatever, much faster than a USB 1.1 interface will. The question remaining is whether Yamaha's other components on the T3 are themselves further "optimized" to take advantage of the USB 2.0 interface on the T3. Depending on whether the T3 Motherboard, CPU, Memory Bus, etc., are improved over the T2 is important in the scheme of things. Regardless though, the potential has already been vastly improved with the inclusion of USB 2.0 on the T3 i.e. USB 2.0 = up to 480Mb/s transfer rate vs. USB 1.1 = up to 12Mb/s transfer rate.

Bringing up Styles from the Hard Drive is probably going to be about the same in my opinion, although I could be wrong about that.

One way for quicker response from the Hard Drive is a reduction in access time to the Hard Drive itself, which depends significantly on the rotation speed of a given Hard Drive. In other words, if Yamaha allowed faster Hard Drives to work with the T3 it would also improve the access time it takes to bring up Styles from the Hard Drive in my opinion. But I don't think you can use 7,200 RPM Drives on the T3 and instead, I believe 5,400 RPM Drives are still the current limit.

Best,
Mike

While the interface speed may have sped up, the time to transmit the few kb that a style is is negligible even at USB1 speeds. I would think that seek time on the HD is the primary culprit here.

To be honest, USB2 is of little value in data transmission until you are transferring MB's of data. It may certainly help loading samples (if the RAM pipe is not already at capacity), but it should make little difference to style and SMF loading.

The problem really exists with using an HD instead of a FLASH RAM disk. The 50-60MB solid state disks on the Rolands are lightening fast, seamless style loading, instant SMF availability, but it only uses USB1. It also loads stuff just as fast from the PCMCIA card slot.

It's the HD that's the problem... get Yamaha to include a 50-100MB solid state drive and your problems should disappear...